The first discs bearing the Master Channel name wore it quietly, stretching and distorting the text on each disc's center label and making it fainter with each release. Was Basic Channel an artist name? Placed next to titles like “Phylyps Trak” and “Quadrant Dub,” the early records seemed to imply as much, even as others like “Enforcement” and “Inversion” were credited to someone named Cyrus. Maybe, back then, Basic Channel was a record label. But who was Cyrus? And who was responsible for pressing those snazzy 12 singles?”
With a visual design that reflected conceptual art's brief fascination with Xerox machines during the 1960s, they made a clean break with the futuristic features of Detroit techno, which was just beginning to settle into orthodoxy in the early 1990s. .Wherever they came from and whoever was behind them, nothing else sounded quite like Basic Channel.
The project progressed quickly, producing nine 12″ singles for the label between 1993 and 1994. The records were sparse but intricately constructed, using ambient synths and studio effects to create surprisingly dense structures that revealed new patterns with each listen. His first single duet, 1993's “Enforcement” draws listeners in with a brutal synth loop that repeats, with slight variations, for the track's 13-minute duration, however, these subtle changes make a difference at constant intervals, clashing with the original sequence composition to reveal new contours as the track progresses E2-E4 as does the vertiginous musical phase of minimalist pioneer Steve Reich, which spins forward at a relentless pace without causing fatigue.
The pair would eventually move away from thunderous techno, shifting their focus to subtle textures. But the single contains a template for much of what was to follow, introducing mixing techniques that prioritize space, as well as a careful focus on process, that Mark Ernestus and Moritz von Oswald – the shy individuals who eventually revealed as the artists behind by the moniker—they would carry on throughout their careers. The track, like others such as “Q1.1/I” and “Octagon”, was heavily inspired by Detroit techno, taking influence from Juan Atkins, Jeff Mills, Robert Hood and labels such as Metroplex and Underground Resistance . This stage was the blueprint from which Basic Channel would create—and perfect—a whole new sound of their own. For purists both then—a period when techno's sprawling nightlife network was just beginning to coalesce against the backdrop of German reunification—and now, dub techno begins and ends with the Basic Channel, whose 1995 compilation BCD remains the defining document of the genre.
